Dodes'Ka-Den

Akira Kurosawa’s first colour film is an eccentric and joyous account of a group of disparate people living in a city dump.

Akira Kurosawa’s first colour film is an eccentric and joyous account of a group of disparate people living in a city dump. Approaching a similar milieu to that which he explored in The Lower Depths (1957), Kurosawa’s film finds optimism, humour and musicality (the title refers to a child’s onomatopoeic mimicry of a tram ride) amid the lives of the dispossessed.

Made at a critical point in his life, Kurosawa poured himself into this film and the negative reaction it garnered resulted in a suicide attempt. It’s now rightfully regarded as a classic; Kurosawa’s last poetic paean to post-war optimism.